GREENSBORO, N.C. – Latifah Coleman scored 15 of her career-high 17 points in the final 6-plus minutes and No. 15 North Carolina beat No. 10 Maryland 72-65 on Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference semifinal.
Tierra Ruffin-Pratt added 20 points for the third-seeded Tar Heels (28-5).
They rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit — the second-biggest comeback in the history of the tournament — by shooting 50 percent in the second half and will face No. 6 Duke in the title game Sunday.
Alyssa Thomas had 26 points, 12 rebounds and finished three assists shy of a second straight triple-double for the second-seeded Terrapins (24-7), and Katie Rutan's 3-pointer with 2:45 left tied it at 60.
Coleman responded by hitting jumpers on the next two possessions, and Ruffin-Pratt followed with four straight free throws to propel the Tar Heels to their league-record 18th berth in the title game but first since 2008.
Walteia Rolle had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and ACC rookie of the year Xylina McDaniel had 12 rebounds for the Tar Heels.
Maryland entered as the nation's No. 2 team in rebounding margin at plus-15 but North Carolina outrebounded the Terps by six to deny them their 14th berth in the finals.
Tianna Hawkins added 14 points and Rutan finished with 12 on four 3-pointers for Maryland.
The defending ACC tournament champions led by 16 in the final minute of the first half and were up 50-43 with less than 10 minutes remaining on Hawkins' jumper.
The Tar Heels countered that with a Coleman-led 16-5 burst that gave them their first lead since the opening 5 minutes.
Coleman hit three big shots during the run, including a tying 3-pointer, a pretty baseline drive that put North Carolina up 54-53 and a driving layup that pushed the lead to 59-55 with under 4 minutes left.
These two programs have combined for 19 tournament titles — 10 for Maryland, nine for North Carolina — and they finished the regular season so closely tied for second place in the league standings that the only way to separate them was by a coin flip.
Both were 14-4 in league play, and they split the series with each team winning at home, losing to Duke twice and Florida State once. North Carolina edged the Terps by three points in Chapel Hill, while Maryland rolled the Tar Heels by 26 on its home floor.
For a while it looked like a repeat of that beatdown in College Park. Maryland used a Thomas-led 22-7 run late in the half and went up 38-22 with 6.4 seconds left in the half.
The Tar Heels tightened things right back up with a 20-6 run, with McDaniel's steal and layup with just under 13 minutes left pulling them to 44-42 and it stayed tight until North Carolina pulled away down the stretch.
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Follow Joedy McCreary on Twitter at (at)JoedyAP
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